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Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo is an Italian military leader who serves as Italy's Governor-General of Libya, and is the Leader of the Far Right Party "Italian Fasci of Combat". History Early life In 1896, Balbo was born in Quartesana (part of Ferrara), in the Kingdom of Italy. Balbo was very politically active from an early age. At only 14 years of age, he attempted to join in a revolt in Albania, under Ricciotti Garibaldi, Giuseppe Garibaldi's son. The Great War As the Great War broke out, and Italy declared its neutrality, Balbo supported joining the war on the side of the Allies. He joined in several pro-war rallies. Once Italy entered the war in 1915, Balbo joined the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) as an officer candidate and served in the Alpini (Mountain) Battalion "Val Fella" before volunteering for flying training on 16 October 1917. A few days later the Austro-Hungarian and German armies broke the Italian lines in the Battle of Caporetto, and Balbo returned to the front, now assigned to the Alpini battalion "Pieve di Cadore", where he took command of the assault platoon. At the end of the war, Balbo had earned one bronze and two silver medals for military valour and reached the rank of Captain (Capitano) due to courage under fire. After the war, Balbo completed the studies he had begun in Florence in 1914–15. He obtained a law degree and a degree in Social Sciences. His final thesis was written on "the economic and social thought of Giuseppe Mazzini", and he researched under the supervision of the patriotic historian Niccolò Rodolico. Balbo was a Republican, but he hated Socialists and the unions and cooperatives associated with them. Balbo returned to his home town to work as a bank clerk. Legion leader and Coup In 1921, Balbo joined the newly created Italian Nationalist Association (Associazione Nazionalista Italiana, or ANI), and soon became a secretary of the Ferrara Legionary organization. He began to organize Legionary gangs and formed his own group nicknamed Celibano, after their favorite drink. They broke strikes for local landowners and attacked communists and socialists in Portomaggiore, Ravenna, Modena, and Bologna. The group once raided the Estense Castle in Ferrara. Italo Balbo had become one of the "Ras", adopted from an Ethiopian title somewhat equivalent to a duke, of the Legionary hierarchy by 1922, establishing his local leadership in the party. The "Ras" typically wished for a more decentralized Legionary Italian state to be formed. Despite his young age of 26, Balbo would go on to become one of the principal architects of the 1923 Coup. He was also part of the group who tried to storm the parliament. His role was to break the security and the outside manifestants, but the army quickly neutralized his group and arrested him. Prison time and the Escape In prison, he started to read war memories and political texts from defunct war veterans and socialist/proto-valkist activist Benito Mussolini. Balbo also started to grow interest in Renaissance works and authors, in particular Dante. While he was incarcerated, it is said that he converted to ''Sansepolcrism, ''to later develop it according to classical Latin thought. During this period he also had close bonds with Gabriele D'Annunzio. They often met, and D'Annunzio taught him aereonautical arts, of which he immediately became very interested. In early 1925, Balbo, who previously, thanks to relevant contacts, manged to get a plane, organized a gateaway. While on a prison visit, D'Annuznio managed to escape, reach the plane, and fly to Brazil. Two Months later, Balbo was freed thanks to a general amnesty of all involved in the coup. Camerun and Libya In 1927, the government rounded up some ex-prisoners to fight in Camerun against the local resistance, under supervision of General Graziani. Not much is known about his time in Camerun, except that the division often commited war crimes and was generally harsh to the locals. Even Balbo was disgusted by some of the atrocities commited. Once he returned home, he and other veterans formed the far right political party, Fasci di Combattimento Italiani, and set up a paramilitary group. The party's official ideology is Sansepolcrism, but it encompasses various ideologies, like Pan-Latinism, Italian Nationalism, National Syndicalism, Futurism and irredentism. It quickly began to grow support between war veterans and some dissatisfied workers. The party kept gaining popularity, until 1933 when, to relieve tensions surrounding him, Balbo was given the government of Italian Libya and was sent there. Without Balbo, the party quickly collapsed due to a dispute for who to elect as leader, the dispute lasted longer than it should have and the party lost a lot of support. Balbo was eventually reappointed as leader in late 1935. In Libya, Balbo lead a succesful advance against guerilla leader Omar al-Mukhtar. Libya was at the mercy of rebel raids, and the chaos created by it until the arrive of Balbo. Under his leadership, the Royal Army, quickly made serious gains. The conflict is still ongoing, even if the zone is rather peaceful. Personal Life Italo Balbo is married to Countess Emanuela Florio, even if this decision wasn't liked by her father. From the Marriage three children were born; Giuliana in 1926, Valeria in 1928, and Paolo in 1930. Balbo is widely considered as the "political heir" to the Italian poet, soldier, and politican Gabriele D'Annunzio, after D'Annuzio's escape from imprisonment to Brazil. In 1920 he joined the Masonic Lodge in Ferrara. Category:People